MARVEL Contest of Champions: Everything you need to know!

MARVEL Contest of Champions is a popular free-to-play mobile fighting game developed by Kabam. Although the game launched in 2014, it remains wildly popular and is constantly updated with new characters, quests, and treasures to be discovered.

As the player, you assume the role of Summoner and are tasked with battling your way through various quests, fights, and special events colorful fast-paced action.

Whether you have been playing the game for a while now, or are just getting started, here's everything you need to know about MARVEL Contest of Champions!

The Objective

The ultimate objective in MARVEL Contest of Champions is to build the biggest, baddest, and meanest team comprised of heroes and villains to take down all the rest. Of course, there are multiple different things you can do throughout the course of the game to bolster your squad into the ultimate fighting machines.

Champions

All the characters you can play as throughout the game are referred to as champions. These are characters you will no doubt recognize from MARVEL movies, comics, and other media over the years.

MARVEL Contest of Champions has just under 100 different playable champions in the game, so you'll run across a few of your favorite heroes, villains, and anti-heroes along the way.

If you're going to make the best team you possibly can, you'll need to fight your way through quests, upgrade your champions, and use crystals to get new champions.

New Champions, Crystals, and Units.

You'll start off the game with two champions already in your arsenal, but they are pretty weak, and you'll be able to get better ones as you progress. To receive new champions, you'll need to pick up crystals and crack them open to see what's inside.

While the game will occasionally reward you with crystals that will give you a chance at new champions, the main way to get champion producing crystals is by collecting the premium currency in the game known as Units. You receive Units as you progress through the game and defeat enemies or buy using real money to buy them via an in-app purchase.

Once you have enough units to purchase a premium hero crystal (100 units for one), you'll be able to open the crystal and receive a random champion.

Champion Rank

Not all champions are created equal. Each champion will have a rank which is represented by a star rating, one star being the lowest rank and four stars being the highest rank.

The higher the rank of a champion, the more powerful they will be overall. Using a premium hero crystal will give you the opportunity to receive either a 2-star, 3-star, or 4-star champion; however, the higher the rank, the rarer they are to find in crystals.

Champion Classes

If you know anything about Marvel, you know there are lots of superpowered people, aliens, robots, and even gods roaming the universe. With such a diverse cast, MARVEL Contest of Champions has separated champions into six classes. Skill, Science, Mystic, Cosmic, Tech, and Mutant.

These classes all have their advantages, disadvantages, and even unique abilities. Here's a quick example of some of the champions you'll find in each class.

Skill: Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Punisher all belong to the Skill class.

Science: Hulk, Ant-Man, and Luke Cage all received their powers because of science.

Cosmic: Thanos, Drax, and Captain Marvel receive their powers from some Cosmic entity.

Tech: Vision, Iron Man, and Star-Lord are all Tech marvels.

Mutant: Wolverine, Storm, Cable are all genetically mutated humans.

Class Bonus

Different classes receive a special bonus against champions of other classes, causing them to be more effective or less effective in combat against certain opponents.

The class bonus circle isn't available in the game, oddly enough, but before each fight you'll always be able to see if your champions are benefiting or not from a class bonus, so you'll know which character to take into battle.

The class bonus circle goes like this:

Mutant > Skill > Science > Mystic > Cosmic > Tech > Mutant

Upgrading Champions

You start the game with two champions that are both going to be rank one, which is the lowest rank in the game; however, you can upgrade heroes throughout the game and make them stronger. There are two ways to increase the power of your champions; you can enhance their level or increase their rank.

Level Up Champions

To level up your champions you'll need to use something known as ISO-8. It's a radioactive isotope that;s popular in the Marvel universe and in this game it powers up your characters!

You'll collect ISO-8 as you complete quests, open crystals, and defeat enemies. When you go to level up a champion, it will take a certain amount of ISO-8 to power them up. Once you have given them enough ISO-8 to level up (as indicated by the gauge at the bottom of the screen picture above), you'll also need to spend some gold. Both the amount of ISO-8 and gold you need to level a character up will increase as their level increases.

You can't level up a character indefinitely, the will eventually reach a level cap. The only way to power them up once they have reached their cap is to increase their rank.

Increasing Champions Rank

Once you have increased a champion to their max level, you'll need to power them up further by increasing their rank. Essentially, when a champion gains a rank, they get an extra star, and their stats reset to the baseline for a champion of that rank. Remember, the higher the rank, the stronger a champion can become in the long run.

Increasing a champions rank is done by using Catalysts, which you receive randomly throughout your time completing quests they are pretty rare and incredibly valuable, so make sure you use them on the right champions!

Quests

There are two types of quests you can embark on in MARVEL Contest of Champions, Story Quests and Event Quests. Both types operate practically the same, but there are a few key things to know about how quests work.

Quest Maps

Each quest has a map that consists of nodes. Some of these nodes have enemies you'll need to battle, some of them have items hidden, and some of them have nothing. As you move to each node, you'll be using energy. You only have a finite amount of energy at a time, and it recuperates at a rate of one energy per six minutes.

You'll notice some quest maps have multiple paths to the final fight of each quest; this means you'll have to choose a path at every intersection. You can't backtrack during the quest itself; however, you can repeat older quests as many times as you want, meaning you can go back and snag the items you left behind the first time around.

Number of Champions

You can only have a set amount of champions join you on each quest, and you have to pick them before you start. Choose carefully and try to keep your team as diverse as possible to try and capitalize on any class bonus opportunities that may arise.

The number of champions you can take with you increases as you progress through the game. The lowest amount you'll ever have is two, while the highest is five.

Healing Champions

Each champion will start each new quest at full health; however, once the quest has begun, champions (except for some mutants) don't heal on their own.

If you want to heal a champion, you'll have to do so by using a potion on them right before you enter a fight. You'll earn healing potion in quests and crystals. Always keep track of your champion's' health and don't let anybody die!

Combat System

The combat system in MARVEL Contest of Champions is relatively easy to learn and the in-game tutorial does a good job of teaching you the basics. In case you need a refresher, here are the basics of combat.

Light Attack: A fast and weak attack that does minimal damage. Perform a light attack by tapping on the right side of the screen.

Medium Attack: An attack that does moderate damage. Perform a medium attack by swiping right on the screen.

Heavy Attack: A slow attack that does a fair amount of damage and can break through an enemy block. Perform a heavy attack by tapping, holding, and releasing on the right side of the screen.

Special Attack: A unique attack for each champion that does massive damage. Tap the special attack button when your special gauge is full.

Block: A block will severely reduce the amount of damage you take from light and medium attacks, but will not work against heavy attacks. Perform a block by tapping and holding your finger on the left side of the screen.

Tips and Tricks

MARVEL Contest of Champions can be a little tricky to get the hang of, but we're here to help! We've jotted down a few tips and tricks to get you off to a strong start in the game!